Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
When entering a new feature request, please provide:
- Description
- Why is this valuable to you?
4699 results found
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Increase number of recent files
Please increase the maximum number of recent files from 30 to 50 or 100 like Photoshop (both in Home Screen and File > Recent).
Original idea by Junior Rocha
9 votes -
Allow to Move All objects and adjust their Spacing from both ends in Objects on Path
Objects on Path construct has several on-canvas widgets, allowing us to quickly eyeball some parameters interactively.
One of these is the starting position of the array along the path.
If the length of the array is shorter then the path, we can grab the rhombus marker and move all the objects together along, keeping the gaps.Another one is Space widget, which is located above the construct.
We can grab and make all the gaps shorter or longer at once.For some reason both treat the array as directional.
We need an ability to be able to move the array…
9 votes -
Objects on Path needs an ability to keep orientation of objects relative to page/path, similar to blends
Objects on Path needs more options and in its current setup is very limited in its usefulness. This tool feels like it's still in beta. Whilst it's good at doing the one thing it's designed to do, it's missing a lot of useful capabilities.
What's missing is the ability to keep the baseline of the objects i.e., keeping the objects horizontal. What it needs are the same options as Type on a Path (Rainbow, Skew, 3D Ribbon, Stair Step, Gravity).
Other two requests are:
1. Allow to nudge or rotate individual elements along the path for Objects on Path — …9 votes -
Highlight objects to unlock when choosing one from Unlock in context menu
Previously Illustrator introduced a way to unlock specific objects under cursor: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/34950421
See the screenshot for example.
However, when you have objects unnamed, this list doesn’t really help, and Ai does nothing to highlight the object in focus and help to distinguish from other locked ones.Ai should make the edge of the object to be unlocked with a thick line, similar to one we see on key objects, or a somewhat similar look it is used for Objects on Path picking mode (now in Beta).
Look how Figma highlights objects (see the attached video).
Why Ai can’t do the…9 votes -
Press Alt while creating a radius / diameter dimension to toggle these two mode on the fly
Currently Dimension tool requires you to orient your cursor when creating a radius or diameter: inside of the clicked shape to create a diameter or outside to make it a radius.
This is very nifty, sure.
But:The tool hardly tells you about it when you draw. The only hint Ai give us is a blue bar (that we all tired of seeing, because everything in Ai now pops and shouts and distracts — I’m speaking about use, Text To Vector!) — I attach the screenshot of it for those who blinked and missed it.
If I work with a…
9 votes -
Press Shift to constrain the angle of a radius / diameter dimension
Shift is universally used to constrain a drawn art to 0-45-90° angles when using a tool. This applies to lines, rectangles, other shapes, anything that can be clearly oriented.
The Dimension tool breaks the paradigm — we can’t hold shift to constraint the angle of the drawn dimension line when creating radii or dimeters.
Some standards require us to have these lines too use integer steps, like 15° or 30°... this is very hard to comply now.
Please either make the tool to respect angles set in Preferences > Smart Guides, or make it a separate setting in the tool’s…
9 votes -
More precision options for Dimension Tool
Please add: 0"-0 1/8" & 0"-0 1/16" to Unit precision. I really need 3/8", 5/8", 7/8"...
9 votes -
Allow new Smooth command (not the tool) to be a live effect also
New Smooth is quite handy to deal with rugged shapes. But it is also introduces the new 'dialog-less' approach, when we are basically given a dialog that auto-commits on dropping a selection. Once it is dropped, the change is applied. We will get accustomed to that.
But imagine I smoothed something, then get distracted, and returned to the smoothed path a while after. To undo and reapply this I’d have to go back in History (at least we finally have it).
What if we can apply this as an effect to an object, rather than a immediate filter? It means…
9 votes -
Don’t drop the current character selection in text when I switch between documents
If you select a portion of a text in Illustrator and switch to a different app and back — the selection stays in place.
But if I switch between Illustrator documents/tabs — the selection gets lost. This makes editing of two or more documents at the same time very inconvenient, effectively loosing my data about the selection made.9 votes -
Option to allow to group a single group, making it nested
Sometimes we need to group a group. For example, for complex appearances, to nest graphics styles.
But Illustrator does not allow that — and in most cases it’s a proper cautious behavior. But perhaps it can be toggled somewhere?So far we have two workarounds for this.
1. Create a dummy object, select both it and the group you want to 'wrap', group them together, delete the dummy object.
2. Use a script 'Add Group Anyway': https://onthehead.com/ais/group003/ (it also can pull children form different groups into a new one — which is a thing we want too).9 votes -
Add First Object Above / Last Object Below commands in Select menu
Illustrator provides two ways to access Next Object commands:
1. From Select menu
2. From the context menu, Select submenuAnd while the context menu provides four commands, the Select menu gives only two. First Object Above / Last Object Below — for no apparent reason — are missing, and we can’t assign hotkeys to these because of it.
Please add them there.
Also consider this request, to be able to select ALL objects above or below the current selection: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/34306246-select-objects-above-below-current-layer-objec
Note that this one is basically about 'select those who intersect', while we are also interested in 'select those…
9 votes -
Show the exact location where snapping to grid occurs
Snap to Grid is underrated. Illustrator makes everything to make it uncomfortable to use: no constantly available indicator, clashing with Smart Guides, the general lack of customization (https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-feature-requests/suggestions/32403847-make-center-point-visible-while-dragging-art)...
And also it does not give enough feedback on WHERE the moved / transformed object snaps to, to which exact gridlines’ intersection.
Something just happens!
Look at the GIF — this 13.25×13.25 magenta square feels like it’s lagging, also I’m just trying to position it.Look at the second GIF, from Affinity Designer. Can you spot the difference? We can clearly see which point it snaps to, no problem. Well,…
9 votes -
Move 'Show The Home Screen...' and 'Use Legacy File New...' options to Preferences > User Interface section
These two options are not 'general', they relate to specific UI choices.
9 votes -
Be able to create a finished vector repeat tile from Pattern Editing Mode.
Currently, the only way for a designer to get a final tile from a repeat pattern created in pattern mode is a clunky workaround involving dragging the fill swatch art from the swatches panel to the artboard and then working with the bounding shape to create a cropped, repeatable tile for export. We need a button to click inside pattern mode that creates a tile from the artwork inside pattern mode that is perfectly cropped (could be a clipping mask) but will retain all the live content that typically gets expanded when you exit pattern mode. This option should allow…
9 votes -
Make Increase / decrease font size hotkeys to respect chosen Font Height Options
Font Height Options are amazing.
It’s almost a perfect feature to my taste... but when I hit Font Size Step Up / Down or Point Size Up / Down (Shift + Ctrl/Cmd + ./, and Alt/Opt + Shift + Ctrl/Cmd + ./,) — Illustrator adds the chosen Size/Leading value (from Preferences > Type) to the Em Box size anyway, and not the x-height or the Cap height I chose to work with.So, say, with chosen step 0.5 mm and x-height 15 mm I get 15.267 mm instead of 15.5 mm as the next size up, or 16.335 mm instead…
9 votes -
Create new documents with a 'Plus' button or a double-click in the document tabs area
Document Tabs is a well-known paradigm, thanks to browsers.
Since many of us spend a lot of time with browsers, we expect the same functionality form tabs’ headers in Illustrator.One of them is a middle-click to close a tab (https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/38150188-add-middle-click-to-close-document), another is remember opened tabs on relaunch (https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/44819065-launch-illustrator-with-the-same-opened-documents).
There are others.But the most prominent one is the Plus button to the right (in LTR world) of the last tab, which creates a new document.
Sure, one can hit Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+N, or go File > New, but sometimes we are lazy, and the other hand is…
9 votes -
Hitting Alt+Down does not open dropdown lists
I expect Alt+Down to drop down focused lists with options inside, like Font Family / Style, Stroke Weight, etc.
Sure, I understand it might conflict with duplicating, but in fact no, since Ai does not duplicate when a field is focused anyway. At the same time, it’s a common and expected behaviour in other applications.
9 votes -
Place embedded pdf Link with Option to Convert all text as outlines
When opening a pdf in illustrator, if the pdf contains fonts that are not installed on the system. it will ask to find the font. and substitute a system default. the vector data for that font is in the pdf. if you take the same pdf, place it as a link, then flatten transparency, you can select "Convert all text to outlines", I would like the option to select "Convert all text to outlines" when embedding a placed PDF, so all fonts will be outlines and show properly even if font is not shown. it would use pdf font data…
9 votesHello,
We have started working on the tech that allows us to enable the following:
- Ability to convert the outlined/expanded text back to live text.
- Ability to lock objects to a character/glyph of a live text, allowing users to change the text (properties) while the object stays locked into the character.
As we work through the complexities of handling different font families, font size, and other font properties, we would love to meet with you and share our thinking around it and understand :
- Your use cases and workflows that this feature will help you with.
- What is most essential for you.
- The workarounds that you currently use to achieve this.
If you are interested, please pick a time slot that works for you using this link. https://calendly.com/meetai/60min?month=2023-01
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Search / Filter option in Find/Replace Font dialog
Here is my problem. On InDesign when you do "Find/Replace font" you can select the missing font and then you can SEARCH and then replace the font. In Illustrator, the same method exists. BUT you cannot SEARCH... Why? Did I miss something?? Do I really have to scroll through the 4000 fonts to get to the one I want?
Could we have the same panel on Illustrator as in InDesign?9 votes -
Make Global Edit work with parts of compound shapes
When you use Direct/Group Selection tool and select a part of compound shape, that you know exist on canvas, you expect Global Edit to see them too and allow you to edit these copies simultaneously — but no, Illustrator does not recognize them.
Please finish Global Edit, it is not complete.9 votes
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